By Cory Doctorow Steven Brust is a literary treasure and his longrunning Vlad Taltos series, now nearing its final volume, is a good example of where his strengths lie: hardboiled plotting, snappy dialog, weirdly realistic and plausible depictions of magic, and a sensitive eye for power relationships and their depiction, all of which are onRead More

By Cory Doctorow Annie Duke dropped out of a PhD in cognitive psychology to become a professional poker player; now she runs a nonprofit devoted to improving decision quality by merging the practical cognitive tools of the world’s greatest poker players with the leading edge of cognitive psychology, a method she describes in an excellentRead More

By Cory Doctorow In the first volume of Briggs Land, DMZ-creator Brian Wood set up a gripping scenario: a leadership struggle in a far-right separatist cult whose leader has languished in prison for decades. Now, in the second collection Wood and his collaborators are playing out the story for all it’s worth.
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My latest Locus column, “Let’s Get Better at Demanding Better from Tech,” looks at how science fiction can make us better critics of technology by imagining how tech could be used in difference social and economic contexts than the one we live in today.
The “pro-tech” side’s argument is some variation on,Read More

By Sarah LaBrie Black Candies: The Eighties (published by So Say We All Press) features 23 stories of analog horror that slice through the late-night whirr of VHS, the big hair, and neon parties to prove that nostalgia is the real murderer behind the mask.
Sarah LaBrie’s story “Survivor” from Black Candies: The EightiesRead More

Information security firm Bishop Fox’s “Cybersecurity Style Guide” is 92 pages’ worth of usage notes from the confusing world of technical jargon, a combination of glossary, pronunciation guide and style manual (in the manner of the jargon file), and includes the notation that “cyber-” is an ill-advised prefix.
They’re open to your suggestionsRead More

New Jersey State Senator Jeff Van Drew wants to run for Congress as a Democrat; he visited 17-year-old Emily McGrath’s school, Egg Harbor Township High, where McGrath questioned him about whether he’d taken money from the NRA; Van Drew said he hadn’t, and he was lying.
Emily McGrath, 17, and Donna Challender of TuckertonRead More

VLC 3.0 is out and the world’s greatest video-playback app includes many long-awaited features, including stable Chromecast support, native support for browsing LAN drives to find your videos, and adaptive streaming to improve playback.
It’s been months since Xi Jinping secured another five years in office and got his second five-year plan throughRead More

Here’s a guy who’s found his niche market. Out of a humble panga, there is a French baker who goes boat to boat selling his fresh-baked wares to those docked (primarily gringos) in Jalisco, Mexico’s Barra de Navidad marina and lagoon area.
Chef Emeric Fiegen opened up shop, with his wife Christine, inRead More

By Cory Doctorow I love Jen Wang’s work: her debut graphic novel Koko Be Good was thought-provoking and challenging and beautiful; “In Real Life,” her adaptation of my story Anda’s Game took the tale to places that delighted and surprised me — today, Firstsecond publishes The Prince and the Dressmaker, which I believe will beRead More